By Tony Jones
MEMPHIS, TN — With the entire state abuzz about Ford Blue Oval City planting its roots in Tennessee, the MMBC Continuum 16th Annual Economic Development Forum held at Memphis’s Renasant Convention Center August 15th thru 17th took on a heightened level of excitement and importance this year. Themed “The Future Is Now”, the 2023 edition included an innovative crime focused seminar and a surprising reveal shared by Head of Supplier Diversity & Inclusion Travis M. Spencer.
Spencer says what’s really in process at the approximate $6 billion, 3,600 acre Blue Oval City site is a vehicle known internally as the “T3” that’s something beyond the next generation electric F-150, a totally intriguing statement when you consider its historical imprint. Second only to the Toyota Corolla, more than 40 million F-150s have been sold since it was introduced in 1975. “It’s the flagship vehicle of our nation,” Spencer reminds. Ford’s August 2022 stats report that it is also the nation’s second top selling electric vehicle.
It even has its own legend. McLemore Water Meters owner Kerry Collins, a black business owner based in Nashville, once shared the F-150 owner’s funny motto with me—“A Chevy will get you to work, but a Ford will get you home.” Spencer says Ford is dead set on assuring that many of those homes belong to African Americans. A Detroit native, he gets it. “I like to describe my role as the hardest job I’ve ever loved,” he says.
His enthusiasm visibly rose when discussing the challenge of actually delivering funding to black owned business in Memphis, where the city’s sickening 1% private spend chokes so much progress. “When you’re working with a Fortune 20 company there’s a ton of paper work and bureaucracy, but the great thing is that in this case (Ford) you’ve got excellent leaders with great intentions and we’ll find ways to become more agile when we need to. Equity is what I’m trying to achieve, not just here but globally. It’s the economic ripple effect that we’re trying to accomplish. They’ve deployed and tasked me to monitor the situation, unleashed me really, so it’s been great.”
Since its groundbreaking Sept. ’22, Spencer said Blue Oval’s “Done a ton of sourcing on the front end, that’s construction. Now we’re working on who’s going to be working on shipping parts and who’s going to be working at the facility. We’re working with our general contractor Walbridge and we’ve given them targets to meet for our diverse spend and we’ve exceeded them so far. We, with Walbridge, just reported our metrics today (Thursday, 8-17) and we’re at about 40% diverse spend. We’ve spent $1.3 billion with diverse businesses and $400 million of that has been with diverse businesses in Tennessee.”
He said he and Walbridge have found MMBC to be right on point. “They give us access to suppliers we wouldn’t otherwise have.”
Whatever the T3 turns out to be, MMBC President & CEO Jozelle Booker says there is no stone their members and Memphis businesses should leave unturned. “After we conclude, we’re going to debrief with Ford and then we’ll follow up with the clients that attended, our members (list) and our corporate members and we will continue to follow up all year. The work is to follow up to make sure the expectations of both sides are met. We know what the qualifications are and assist to make sure the expectations are met. The question is did you actually follow up and when you did follow up was there an opportunity? How do you connect to onboard?”
Booker created a great innovation for their first post covid event, a legal panel titled “An Opportunity of a Lifetime: Is It Unethical or Illegal?” comprised of regulatory, legal and law enforcement officials tutoring from real world case scenarios that could result in penalties or worse.
Booker concludes, “With the theme of “The Future Is Now” and the level of unprecedented investment coming to the state it’s necessary to know how not to get scammed. We have Ford coming in at $6 billion; the Downtown Commission announced another $6 billion for downtown Memphis; the airport and St. Jude each has a billion dollar investment; Regional One is pulling together a billion dollar capital stack; MATA has $600 million in federal funds coming. Then there is the money the state has given the city to upgrade all the sports facilities. And the funding for the electrification of the entire state, we’re looking at 25 billion coming into the state and public money is tied to it. St. Jude doesn’t receive public funds, but they always meet or exceed their (minority) participation goals. Don’t get excited and listen to your friends. Know what is legal and what is not.”
